


The Battle of Beacon;  Team Rifle fights Part 1

by chadmaako, MeJA



Series: The Team Rifle Ideas [1]
Category: Black Lagoon (Anime & Manga), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Final Fantasy XIII, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, RWBY
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 20:01:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18453617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chadmaako/pseuds/chadmaako, https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeJA/pseuds/MeJA
Summary: RWBY: Team Rifle (RFFL) was created by Chadmaako, who couldn't finish his vision before he passed away. Here are some of the ideas for the story's future brought to light.





	The Battle of Beacon;  Team Rifle fights Part 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [RWBY: Team Rifle (RFFL)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7283146) by [chadmaako](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chadmaako/pseuds/chadmaako). 



> Before starting RWBY: Team Rifle (RFFL), Chad 'chadmako' exchanged a message or two about an idea for a story; what if, in RWBY, Ozpin and crew decided that they needed help to fight against Salem and her minions? What if they brought in their own “ringers” to even or overturn the odds? Hence, the story of four new players being released on Remnant began. Those characters were; Roberta (Black Lagoon), Oerba Yun Fang (Final Fantasy), Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter), and Faith Lehane (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). 
> 
> So the story of Team RFFL was born, and I was lucky that Chad and I often discussed the story and future ideas and directions. 
> 
> Chadmaako, unfortunately, passed away from a heart condition before he could finish Team Rifle and a few other works. So, while I don’t think I can do chapter after chapter, in Chad’s honor, I will try to do some quasi stand alone, quasi interconnected works to bring out the ideas and plot twists Chad and I discussed. I can’t write in Chad’s style or be as prolific as he was, so these writings are based off those ideas. My hope is to overall bring a sense of closure to the story for Chad’s fans. I think he would like that …
> 
> Chadmaako's stories are in my bookmarks. I recommend them highly. I also would recommend reading Team Rifle first…
> 
> C2 means Command and Control.
> 
> BTW, I don’t own Black Lagoon, RWBY, Final Fantasy, Harry Potter or anything else.
> 
> Comments are welcome, Thanks!  
> MeJA

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost…” Cinder Fall purred huskily as Neopolitan executed a proper half bow and ushered her raven haired companion past her with a flourish of her hand. Neo’s eyes never left the four FLML team members, but there was a special darkness to her glare as her eyes rested on Faith. Inside, Faith experienced a chill run up her spine. A thought crossed Faith’s mind; _'And Death came, riding in an Ice Cream truck…'_ Cinder walked further into the lights of the gymnasium, revealing her transformation into an almost completely Grimm body. Her eye, the one not covered by her hair, still had an orange iris. Her normally black hair was streaked with shocks of white, She wore her trademark orange dress with dust laced patterns embroidered into the fabric, slit up near to her waist on one side. No part of her body seemed untouched by her transformation.

Cinder’s eyes, like Neo’s, never left her opponents. In a harder voice, Cinder said “There’s one missing. That cybernetic bitch who made me like this. Where is she? Tell me truthfully and I’ll let you all go and live out whatever pathetic little lives you have left.” Faith smashed her gauntlets together, creating a shockwave that everyone felt and that visibly rattled the windows. “Not happening, Frankenstein’s bitch!” she answered for all of them, then added “And Roberta didn’t make you look like that, she made you look dead. Shouldn’t you be shuffling along and be craving brains?” 

Cinder glared at Faith, and said “The only brains I want is your Roberta’s. I want to see them spread over the floor after I beat them out of her head, little girl.” Faith began to get up a head of steam, ready to charge at Cinder. Fang stopped her with a hand signal, and said “I need you to keep Neo off my back, Faith. Can you do it?” After a moment’s hesitation, Faith nodded back to Fang.

Fang pulled an earbud out and placed it in her ear, and hooked a soundless throat microphone around her neck, as did the other members of FLML. “Mercury, guard Luna. Luna, stand back and call out their moves to us. It’s for real now, so stay sharp!” Fang called out her orders, and FLML responded crisply, Luna and Mercury fading backwards as Faith moved up closer to Fang.

Shaking her head, Cinder sighed. “Heroes, tch…” she muttered. She and Neo nodded to each other, and Neo faded back slightly out of the light behind Cinder. Cinder’s hands fluttered momentarily over herself, then rested in a guard position to her side. Veins of power laced through her body and red and orange tracts shined under her black and white skin. Her one visible eye showed glints of dust particles streaming into it. Cinder looked at Fang, who had her bladed lance in hand, holding it loosely and confidently. Appreciating a worthy opponent when she saw one, Cinder fixed her sight on Fang and said “Very well, let’s get this going, then.. “ With a flash of light and energy in her hand, Cinder formed a spear of her own out of metallic dust from inside her. She dropped into a fighting stance, circled in front of Fang, and said “Let’s make this a fair fight, shall we?” With a quick half turn, she used blindingly fast speed to launch her spear at Luna’s chest.

Luna stood wide-eyed. She had gotten used to her semblance working all the time, so she should have seen Cinder’s attack coming long before Cinder made her move…but Luna hadn’t seen any forewarning at all. Cinder’s spear flying at her had caught her flat footed, and now she had no chance of recovering in time. She had just began to belatedly cast _expellarmus_ when Mercury’s arm encircled her waist and pulled her off her feet and to him. He twisted around her as he leapt clear and put his armored legs in the direction back to where they had been standing. Cinder’s spear passed through where Luna had been, impacting the support beam that had been behind her and exploding. Fortunately, Mercury’s legs took the majority of the blast and all of the shrapnel, so while landing unceremoniously with Mercury on top of her, both she and he were unscathed.

Snarling at seeing her love being attacked, Fang leapt at Cinder. Midleap she unleashed a portion of the Fall Maiden’s power. Her eye blazing, she was intent upon crushing the threat to her team and her lover as quickly as possible. Cinder quickly formed a long Cutlass with which she moved to block Fang’s attack. Fang's bladed Lance stopped for a bare minisecond, then ripped it’s way through Cinder’s blade, shattering it into metallic shards as if it were made of glass. Before Fang’s Lance could cut through her, however, Cinder caught Fang's Lance in her off hand. Bones crackled in Cinder’s hand, and the bones in her forearm visibly broke. Yet Cinder showed no sign of pain, and Fang’s Lance stopped dead in place. Cinder smiled at Fang, and tendrils of energy curled from Fang’s hand into Cinder’s where she was touching Fang’s weapon. Fang felt her hands go numb where she gripped her Lance, and she felt the extra power she had gained from the Fall Maiden’s power dissipate by a large fraction. Fang, with effort, yanked her weapon back out of Cinder’s grip and backed away out of Cinder’s range, thinking _'What the hell? Is that how she sucked out Amber’s magic?'_ To Fang’s surprise, a voice within answered; "No, she has new ways. She has improved as a **Thief** …"

Faith stopped watching as Cinder’s spear was hurtled towards Luna. Breaking into a run, she intended to help Fang beat Cinder into a black and white pulp. Suddenly, between her and Cinder Neo appeared, standing casually with a smirk on her face. Her two-toned eyes held contempt in them, a look growing up on the streets Faith was intimately familiar with and detested with vigor. Snarling herself, Faith growled “Goodbye!” and aimed a haymaker straight at Neo’s face. The petite assassin’s smile never changed as she seemed to disappear into thin air before Faith’s fist. Faith, thrown off balance as her ferocious punch connected with thin air, stumbled slightly. “Faith, right leg!” Luna’s shout crackled in her ear. Even with Luna’s warning, only Faith’s superior reflexes and abilities let her shift quickly enough that while Neo’s thin blade bit deeply into her leg, it failed to reach her hamstring. Neo easily danced lightly on her feet away from Faith’s slower counterpunch. Limping visibly, Faith and Neo circled each other, now intent upon their own little war.

Cinder reformed her sword as the bones in her hand crackled and reset themselves into place. She waved her newly healed hand and the dust that made up her former sword leapt into the air, turned in midair and oriented themselves with their sharpest points targeting the tangled Mercury and Luna. The dust missiles rocketed off at blinding speed. This time Luna gripped her fan, and grabbed Mercury with her other hand. She apparated both of them to a space under a nearby table out of Cinder’s view. Mercury looked at her wide-eyed as he felt his guts rearrange themselves back into normal places. “What by the Gods was that?” he gasped. Luna patted his shoulder and clicked her throat mike; “Fang, I’m sorry. I – I can’t see Cinder. I can’t predict what she’s gonna do!” Fang’s response from her soundless throat microphone came through; 'It okay, Sunshine. I beat her for ya anyway…' “I know.” Luna responded. Luna looked at Mercury and said “It’s called apparation. We were hoping to surprise everyone with it later.” Mercury sidled down to a support where he could watch the battles without being easily seen. Quietly, he asked Luna “How many times can you do it? And can it go from anywhere to anywhere?” She looked at him curiously….

 

Roman Torchwick looked over the main Command and Control, or C2 screen in the Atlasean flagship he had “commandeered” with what, for him, approached glee. The Atlasean air Forces were paralyzed, hovering in place. The Atlasean robotic infantry was raising hell with Vale's defenders and the remaining Atlasean regular infantry. The ships filled with Grimm had all delivered their cargo and chaos ruled the streets. The young Hunters were raising havoc in their own way, but they were scattered and not an organized defense. Neo and Cinder had sent word they had located the team that had derailed their first set of plans. While Torchwick had no qualms about revenge when it suited the overall plan, he worried that these two scary women were making it a little personal. But Neo was insistent that the little punching machine needed to taught a lesson, and he had learned long ago not to get in Cinder’s way.

He wasn’t so much giddy with all the blood and Carnage, though it didn’t really bother him. What he really enjoyed was the money and dust he would own when this was over and he and Neo absconded, and the sybaritic life he assumed would wait for him afterward.

The C2 screen called his attention to an airship that had entered the defense perimeter. He recognized its call sign, and thought _'It's about time Adam and the White Fang joined the party. Fashionably late is one thing, but this is ridiculous…'_ The airship landed, and Torchwick assumed a horde of the White Fang’s best would fan out to selected targets. The airship took off again, this time heading straight to the flagship. Torchwick shook his head as he thought _'I told Adam I don’t need a security detail…or is he coming up here to personally stick his nose into what’s supposed to be my end of the business tonight?'_ He toyed with telling the automated defenses to blow the White Fang’s ship out of the skies, but decided that was not the best idea given that he did owe the While Fang leader one for springing him and Neo from Ironwood’s custody. 

He watched the airship dock in the hangar bay, and saw a group of six masked and white uniformed White Fang soldieri disembark and head immediately for the bridge. He relaxed a bit to see Adam wasn’t accompanying them. The doors to the bridge opened and he lazily lounged against the C2 control panel as the White Fang members came up to him. “Welcome to my flagship,” Torchwick intoned with scads of false aplomb. “She’s a beauty, and she’s all mine…Well, at least tonight she’s all mine.” Two of the faunus stepped aside and a tall, black haired female stepped up in front of Torchwick. He nodded in greetings towards her, then froze as he noticed she had Wilt and Blush tucked into her belt. The next thing he knew he was on his knees, coughing and sputtering blood as Roberta’s mechanical fist drilled into his gut. As he looked up, she removed her white fang mask and revealed Roberta aka “Rosarita” Cisneros, in full Bloodhound of Florencia mode. His fears before about Neo or Cinder suddenly were insignificant.

Roberta’s metal hand gripped Roman’s hair, knocking his bowler aside. She dragged him across the floor to a support post and slammed his back and head to it none to gently, then held him in place with her hand over his face. Roman knew better than to even try to struggle against the power of her cybernetic implants. _“Mi felina_ , if you would, please?” Roberta nodded toward the Atlasean security trooper Blake was checking on. Blake felt his neck for a pulse, then shook her head no when she failed to find any. Blake took the guard’s handcuffs, and secured Roman’s hands behind the support post. “Please search him completely, mi felina. Strip him naked if you have to; there is no telling what he may be hiding.” She looked to the White Fang medic that had accompanied them, and said “Treat his injuries, then be ready to sedate him when necessary.” The medic nodded.

Roberta moved to the C2 terminal and examined the situation with the battle around her. She shook her head at how completely the Atlasean and Vale defense had been caught off guard and compromised. Scanning the C2 terminal’s board, she immediately noticed the red scroll that was not normally in a data slot. She made no attempt to remove it, assuming it had already downloaded it’s malicious content, and she considered the possibility it might be booby trapped. She tried a few of the passcodes she had been given as an allied agent attached to Atlasean Military Intelligence, but, as she expected, she was locked out of the system. She turned back to Torchwick. Looming over him, she said, calmly. _“Señor Criminal_ , I will not bother to ask you for passcodes, and would not be able to trust any you gave me anyway. I will ask you, only this one time, if you wish to better your situation by offering any useful information before you are put to sleep?”

He looked up at her and smiled, then said “Well, how could I refuse an offer like that?” Laughing cruelly, he finally sobered and said, “But let me try…No.” He looked at her, smiling. She smiled back like a lean, hungry wolf eyeing a piglet. “I am glad you said that…” She punched him once. Blood began to drip from his nose as his eyes rolled back into his head and he lost consciousness. She looked at the faunus medic and said “I apologize for creating more work for you to have to do, but his attitude required a firm response.” Turning back to the C2 terminal, Roberta pulled her scroll and waited until General Ironwood, sans coat and with his own cybernetic implants on full display, appeared on her screen. “General, we have retaken your Command Ship and apprehended the criminal who took control of it. I am afraid we are locked out of the Atlasean Command and Control System computers, however. I do have an idea for how to regain control, General, but I do not think you will like it much, no?”

He replied “What do you want to blow up, Ms. Cisneros?” He sighed with resignation at the smile she got on her face...

The five former members of the White Fang and Roberta hustled to their airship waiting to pick them up from the Atlasean Battleship's forward deck. Roberta and a burly faunus dragged between them Roman Torchwick, still unconscious and shackled around his wrists and ankles. As they crossed, Ruby Rose riding on her locker, smashed into the deck and the small huntress rolled to her feet. “Ruby!” Blake cried out as she rushed to her teammate’s side. “Are you alright?” she asked as she grabbed Ruby by her shoulders to steady the smaller girl.

“What a ride! Yeah, I’m okay. Blake! It’s good to see you’re back! It’s horrible, the Grimm have come, and…” Ruby noticed the faunus in White Fang uniforms, albeit they were without their trademark masks. And they were with Miss Roberta wearing White Fang garb and the super criminal Torchwick, who looked like he had been roughed up and was in their custody. “Blake, what’s going on? Why are you here with the White Fang? And Ms. Roberta? And…and him?”

Blake looked Ruby in the eyes calmly. Blake’s yellow orange irises always commanded attention, and gave her a seriousness beyond her actual age. “Please trust me Ruby. And trust Roberta, she’s on our side. These faunus were in the White Fang, but now they’re fighting for the same thing as you, me, and all the other Hunters fight for; to protect both people and faunus from harm. It’s a long story, but we pretended to be White Fang so we could get to Torchwick. Somehow he’s gotten into Atlas's computers and messed things up…” Blake closed Ruby’s locker, then set it to return to Beacon. She began to guide Ruby back to the group boarding the airship. Roberta called out as they approached; _“Ondelei!_ , hurry, you two! We do not have time to dawdle here.”

As Roberta gestured for Ruby to sit by the window, Ruby asked “Ms. Roberta, Is something going to happen with General Ironwood’s ship?” Blake sat by Roman and held her sword to his throat. Roberta quirked a small smile at Ruby, which Ruby found more scarifying than reassuring. “Watch and see, Ruby _Rosita_. And call me Roberta, please.” As the airship lifted off and flew away, Ruby watched out the window. Suddenly, the bridge of the Atlasean flagship exploded into fire and blew off the top of the ship. As secondary explosions blew out throughout the superstructure, the Flagship began a ponderous dive into the outskirts of Vale.

One the ground, the Atlas robotic forces lost the command signal from the destroyed C2 computer server, so they followed their core programming and shut down. Hunters and civilians breathed temporary sighs of relief when the Atlas machines were no longer targeting them, only to then return to the reality that Grimm were rampant in the streets. To their shock suddenly large numbers of faunus appeared ready to fight the Grim and to rescue and evacuate civilians. Many around Remnant saw a broadcast showing a resolute female faunus cutting down Grimm after Grimm despite suffering grievous wounds herself as she protected a group of small human children.

As their airship circled, Roberta activated her own Command and Control subroutines, and launched her own internal heads up display recreating the former flagship's C2 terminal display. As her internal AI used a helpfully supplied backdoor from General Ironwood to hack and gain control of the Atlasean ships and ground forces, her board suddenly became full of her own military assets awaiting her orders. Unable to directly control more than a few units at a time, she nonetheless quickly issued several lines of orders for her controlling AI and the powerful Atlasean robotic forces.

On the ground, General Ironwood approached several AK-200 robot infantrymen who showed red lighted facial displays indicating they were under nonstandard Atlasean command feeds. He heard the resounding boom overhead as his ship was scuttled. Shaking his head in disgust, he watched as the robot troops entered shutdown mode. As he walked past, the metal warriors reawakened, displaying blue lighted faces this time, the robots appropriately stood at attention before a senior officer in the field. “Dismissed, carry out your orders and defend the citizenry.” Overhead, he saw the smaller airships split into pairs, a flight leader and a wingman, and begin to clear the skies of the griffins. His heavier Atlas cruisers began to fire on the Nevermores, and also to rain fire upon the numbers of Grimm moving into the outskirts of Vale. He watched as twin airships, guns blazing, dived along the area where ships had offloaded Grimm. Lines of explosions erupted on the ground, following the flightlines of the airships. As the air began to be reclaimed by his forces, the robot troops formed into groups of four. Instead of marching in standard formation down the road, the groups quickly moved to cover and hid in the shadows of the surrounding buildings. Sticking to the shadows, the robots quickly moved off towards the sounds of heavy fighting. Sighing inwardly, Ironwood thought _'We brought Roberta Cisneros here for the skills she learned in war on her world. I guess it was inevitable that she would bring her brand of war with her as well…'_

Across Vale, suddenly immobilized AK-200 and Paladins came back to life and began attacking Grimm again. This time there were few head to head confrontations. Instead, Grimm were caught within or baited into murderous crossfires or funneled into free fire zones where Paladins raked them with high energy particle weapons. Griffins and Nevermores were either blasted out of the sky by airships, or by concentrated missile blasts from paladin launchers. In situations where individual robots were being overwhelmed by large numbers of Grimm, the robot's speakers began to broadcast the same refrain; “Out of commission, become a pillbox. Out of ammo, become a Bunker. Out of time, become heroes…” Then the robots would ignite their dust cores and set off any remaining ammunition to immolate as many enemies as possible as their final action;

As Roberta looked over her version of the C2 screen, she quickly noticed something. She would expect a battle against mainly Grimm to look like an immune system fighting a foreign invader like a bacteria or virus. Certainly the ground based Grimm were concentrated around the Vale periphery as expected except for the Grimm that were transported via airship into the city itself. The aerial Grimm were mostly concentrated over the skies above Vale and Beacon. Mostly. Roberta noted an area around Beacon the aerial Grimm were avoiding. Her instincts, honed by three decades of war in her homeland and abroad, countless battles, and training by and action against men who had fought on multiple continents, shouted to her that this looked unusual. She knew unusual in battle and warfare could mean bad, very bad. She focused on the area, near the training areas at Beacon Academy.

Suddenly a ghostly arm reached from beside her, and tapped a finger on one building, the academy gymnasium. She looked out the corner of her eye and saw a tall young woman with straight brown hair kneeling beside her seat, and realized that the woman fit the description of the Fall Maiden, Amber. Roberta quietly glanced towards Ruby and then Blake. “They can’t see me.” Amber said. “Only you can, because you have my power, or part of it, anyway.” She tapped the gymnasium again. “That’s where the other part of my power is…and that’s where she will be trying to get it again.” Roberta quirked an eyebrow and pursed her lips at the shade of the Fall Maiden. Amber looked back at Roberta matter of factly, and said “Who am I talking about? That **thief** , of course!”

**Author's Note:**

> A little heavy on the Roberta side? Want more Faith and Fang? Next installment I'm planning on focusing more on the gymnasium battle...
> 
> Many thanks to Mrs. Chadmaako for her support.
> 
> The quote the machines are saying is from "Battle of the Beast", a 1983 movie and play about Soviet tankers in Afghanistan.


End file.
